home
Latest News
Monmouth Women’s Festival
Friday 2nd - Sunday 18th March 2012
I will be at Monmouth Women's Festival on Friday 16th March, 18.30 at Haberdashers’ Monmouth School for Boys. £7 and refreshments will be available. I'll be signing bought copies of my book "This way to the revolution". I look forward to seeing you all there! For more details about this event, check out the Monmouth Women's Festival website.
To say emotional abuse is as bad as violence insults every battered wife
Daily Mail article by Erin Pizzey- 15th December 2011
Todays Daily Mail article by Erin Pizzey. The fragile woman standing before me three months ago was small, slight, and extremely scared. Gradually, she told me her story. Having married at 21, she’d had four children in quick succession. This despite the fact that her husband had been violent from the start, lashing out whenever he was stressed or had too much to drink.
But this man was no unemployed layabout — he was a wealthy, successful doctor in Somerset, and the neighbours would never have guessed what was going on behind their doors.
She was frightened and submissive. She loved her husband, and hoped that he would change. Sadly, the violence continued. Read more at the Daily Mail online .....
Erin's Blog - a brand new feature of this website
The latest blog section of the official Erin Pizzey website addresses people who get caught up in violent relationships this week in Erin's Blog. With decades of experience, Erin saw that people who have grown up in abusive families have no warning signals to tell them to stay away and they are the ones who most often end up in the arms of an abuser - but Erin shows that with help, there are ways to "Leaving an addictive relationship".
There's a brand new section of the official Erin Pizzey website this week-Erin's Blog . Read the latest about Erins' experiences and her dealings with people who get caught up in violent relationships and just might be asking themselves the question "Is it love or addiction?".
International day for the elimination of violence towards women
25th November 2011 is the international day for the elimination of violence towards women. Like everybody else who reads this statement I am of course totally in favour of the elimination of violence towards women but unlike the instigators of this event I believe that we should be eliminating violence against everyone and that includes men and children.
I applaud the efforts of Viviane Reding who is the Vice-President and Commissioner responsible for justice, fundamental rights and citizenship, Cecile Grebolvel who is the Secretary General of European Women’s lobby and Mikael Gustatsson who is Chair of Parliamentary Women’s Rights and gender equality commission in their efforts to protect women but I am puzzled as to why this enormous empire of women with the huge self important titles manage to avoid any discussion of the effects of violence upon the family, fathers and children.
If we have any hope of tackling the tragic effects of domestic violence we have to face the facts that women can and are also guilty of violence against their partners. To concentrate only of women as victims is to deny the fact that children are also abused by their mothers. We can no longer afford to cover up the huge scandal that has existed for the last forty years where only men have been held up as perpetrators of all violence.
My hope is that sufficient political pressure will be brought to bear upon these women who sit in great positions of power to acknowledge that we do indeed need to make November 25th a day when we all agree internationally that there should be zero tolerance for violence against anyone and that we will all work to make the family a safe and harmonious place.
This Way to the Revolution
Wonderful audience at old market theatre! I was there to sign books with Cathrine Hakim. Her new book is called Honey Money. She believes that men and women should use their erotic capital to get on in life... oh hum that's me out then.
I talked about my book This Way to the Revolution and about the horrendous problems we all face in modern relationships. I am amazed at women who rail against genital mutilation in other countries and then get a plastic surgeon to mutilate their vaginas in order to look beautiful. City Books is a brilliant book shop and they put on this anniversary event. I stayed at The Mecure hotel on the Brighton sea front and whole heartedly enjoyed my stay.
On October 15th I'll be speaking with Cathrine Hakim at City Books Brighton. Catherine Hakim is a British sociologist and former civil servant. She was a Senior Research Fellow in Sociology at London School of Economics between 2002 and 2003. Her research is focused on labour market topics, women’s issues and research methods. She is known for developing the "Preference theory" and criticism of many feminist assumptions about women's employment. If you're around, it would be good to see you there!
'Lack of understanding'
Erin Pizzey, the founder of the first UK's women's refuge, said Mr Cameron was displaying a lack of understanding about the reality of family break-ups. "There are a lot of reasons why [fathers are] not with their children... not least that women won't let them," she said. Ms Pizzey said it was wrong to single out men, adding: "There is a vast mass of women who are equally as feckless as the men and we never talk about them." To read more and see the report please go to the BBC News UK web pages.
Latest news of my new book!
This Way to the Revolution will be published on 30th May and you can order it now on Amazon. I had my first book signing in Waterstones in Chiswick where I set up the first refuge in the world forty years ago. Unfortunately I told the local press the signing was at 3 pm. but it was actually at 11 am. Still Johnny Hatton who was in the refuge as a child turned up and gave me a big hug I haven't seen him for 35 years so it made it all worth while.
On Thursday 19th May I will be speaking at The Julian Hodge Lecture Theatre at Cardiff University (Julian Hodge Building, Colum Drive, Cardiff, Wales CF10 3EU) at 6 p.m. I am very much looking forward to talking about the new book and meeting everyone.
Legal rights for grandparents
Daily Mail article by James Chapman- 31st March 2011
"The legal right to see your grandchild: Action to end the heartbreak of relatives cut off when their children divorce"
I am delighted that as a grand parent and a great grand mother to see that the grand parents have finally been given legal rights to keep in touch with their grandchildren. However this new report fails to offer fathers the right to have equal access to their children. Yet again the presumption is that the mother has all the rights and fathers are only second class citizens in family life.
"Divorce - British Style" Listen now on BBC Radio 4 'Archives'
On Saturday 12th March at 8 p.m. BBC Radio 4 'Archives' re-ran a programme questioning the effects of 'no fault divorce.' It was a discussion between Cleo Pizzey my daughter, Amber Craig my grand daughter and myself with Rosie Boycott. "40 years ago, a legal change ushered in one of the most profound and rapid changes in British society. The Divorce Act of 1969 came into force in 1971, introducing the concept of no-fault divorces in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Scotland followed with its own reform not long after. The results were dramatic..." Go to the BBC Radio 4 Archive website to listen to the programme. Hope you listen in and please let me have your comments!
Pizzey´s remarkable life - Daily Mail - 16th November
Having successfully sued publishers Macmillan after TV’s Andrew Marr wrongly claimed she had once been a supporter of the Angry Brigade — his book A History Of Modern Britain had to be republished as a result — the redoubtable Erin Pizzey is looking forward to a more peaceful few months.
The founder of domestic violence refuges, Erin, 71, a great-grandmother, living in Twickenham, South-West London, is off to Los Angeles to meet actress Kate Beckinsale, who is producing a film on Pizzey’s remarkable life.
"It turns out Kate once lived in Chiswick and used to walk past my refuge there when she was a child " says diplomat’s daughter Erin, who has written her autobiography, which is due to be published next year... read more
Jewish Women's Aid
I attended the Jewish Women's Aid annual luncheon on 13th of May. I remembered the difficulty I had when we were unable to keep a kosher kitchen. I remember having to order the Rabbis about of the refuge when they came to reclaim the women who had taken refuge... read more
God bless the W.I
I spoke at the Dorset W.I. AGM on 22nd April. I felt surrounded by like minded women when I finished speaking we sang God Save The Queen and there was nobody there to sneer at us. The things that matter to me mattered to them - the family, our country and the future of our children. I talked about the importance of the family .. read more
House of Lords Wednesday 14th October
To discuss the Equal Opportunities bill. I support equality of opportunity for everyone under the current laws. I do not support Equality of outcome because in this bill it will discriminate against men.
Why I loathe feminism... and believe it will ultimately destroy the family
Daily Mail - Femail article - 23rd September 2009
Erin Pizzey set up the world's first refuge for battered women in 1971 - and went on to establish an international movement for victims of domestic violence. But what she has never made public before is that her own childhood was scarred by the shocking cruelty of both her parents ...read more
The House I Grew up In - BBC Radio 4
The House I Grew up In Series 3: Erin Pizzey
Wendy Robbins presents a series revisiting the childhood neighbourhoods of influential Britons. "Campaigner, author and founder of the women's refuge movement, Erin Pizzey, explores her troubled childhood in post-war Dorset"
BBC Radio 4, broadcasting on Tuesday 09:00, 15th September 2009.
NMC Dragging their heels?
On 12th October, 2009 Baroness Oppenheim will ask a question in the House of Lords as to why it has taken six years to bring a case against two nurses who allowed atrocities to happen in a private nursing home to be heard by the National Council of Nursing and Midwifery. The NMC is the regulatory body that disciplines and registers their nursing members. What chance do the vulnerable elderly clients in nursing homes have if the NMC can drag their heels like this?
On February 19th 2009, I became seventy years old. I decided to evaluate the things in my long life that I could say really made me happy. Above all the events that have taken place in my life – some of them wonderful and many times tragic, my children, my grand children and my great grand son have brought me true joy.
I have always been far too fond of wine but my true drug of choice is the writing of fiction. There is nothing more addictive than sitting down at a table and creating out of things but thin air a story that allows me to loose myself in the telling at the moment when the characters step into my head and take over for the entire length of the book.
The hardest part of my life was the years I spent running the first refuge in the world. I all began in a tiny derelict house called 2 Belmont Terrace, in Chiswick, West London. Had I known what was to come in the future, I would have put down my paintbrush and run away. Once the desperate mothers and children poured through the door of the little house I was engulfed in a nightmare that was to go on for the next twelve years. Of course many of the mothers and children were warm loveable people but I also took in women and children who themselves were difficult, dangerous and violent and they need my help as well. My motto was to ‘love the unlovable’ and my religious view is that we are all God’s children and we are all deserving of his love.
Traveling has also been my great joy. I have lived all over the world and am aware of God as the great architect. The world is a beautiful, wondrous place and now because travel is open to all of us, everyone can see it for themselves.
Cooking, reading and hanging out with my family are my passionate pleasures. I am truly grateful to my web team who have created this web site so that all my efforts are now collected under one umbrella.
God bless all those who read these pages and please add your comments at Facebook and become part of the family,
